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I have a Sugimoto cleaver that was made shortly after WWII when they switched to knives from swords. It is so old that none of the current sugimoto employees were around when it was made (and I think they told me the oldest one there had been there since 1950 something. It's pretty badass and an awesome piece of history. I'll take some pics. Oh and now that I'm done bragging about my cool knife, yes it is plain with a rat tail tange and round wooden handle. :biggrin2:

That sounds like an awesome Cleaver, can't wait to see those photos, if it isn't too much to ask, where did you acquire such treasure?

So we can attribute embellishment to our times (With such very rare exceptions? As Jon says) Do you know where we can glance at more of these old beauties Jon? I guess handles were not as important back then...

Jon... Maybe you can help me with this... Samurai sword makers took tamahagane to make steel, did they use lesser quality (Non samurai grade) for their kitchen knives or is it the same quality for honyaki and other kitchen K.?.... Have things changed from back then to now?

I remember seeing a documentary on how Swords were made (High Carbon and lower carbon content jacket that would shrink to accomplish the curvature and such) and Tamahagane experts played an important role in the end product... I was curious on how different swords are from kitchen knives and how they have evolved..

I ask this because I don't know and am curious about the topic.. Thanks!

sword makers are sword makers... knife makers are knife makers... its pretty different. I have a very talented and well respected sword maker friend in Japan who takes pleasure in reminding me of this. Many knife makers claim to come from swordmakers, but for the most part this is just marketing. The knifemakers today dont make swords... they are knifemakers.

That being said, i'm not sure i'm qualified to answer this question. It would depend a lot on what timeframe we are taking about as well.